


Justice Society Academia

by rymac0513



Category: DCU (Comics), Justice Society of America (Comics), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:01:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26544124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rymac0513/pseuds/rymac0513
Summary: In one world, superpowers are rare and heroes are given trials by fire, where they operate alone and with no official sanction. Three of the most seasoned heroes on that world, Jay Garrick, the Flash, Alan Scott, Sentinel, and Carter Hall, Hawkman, are brought to a new world where superpowers are commonplace and heroism and power usage is strictly regulated. Aspiring heroes must be trained and take exams in order to legally operate in the field. Jay, Alan, and Carter must learn to be heroes once again in a world that doesn't accept their style of heroism.
Kudos: 10





	1. Dimensional Displacement

**MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY, JSA HEADQUARTERS**

Jay Garrick, the original Flash, was cleaning up the museum section in the new JSA Headquarters. It had been a few months since the JSA had reformed with both old blood and new. Jay was happy to be a part of a team again and even happier to be teaching youngsters what being a hero meant. While the Star-Spangled Kid, Atom Smasher, and Hourman were fine heroes in their own right, they still needed some guidance at times, and Jay was more than happy to provide it. He was the second ever “Mystery Man” in recorded history, after all, he had a few notches on his belt. 

Jay was losing himself in thoughts of the past and the future, friends found and lost, when an alarm began to sound throughout the headquarters. Jay dropped everything and zipped to the observation room, where he began to assess the emergency.

An amorphous red blob of a demon with tentacles, a mouth filled with razors, and a wet, fleshy texture had reared its head in Queens and was razing the borough. Jay watched, transfixed on the monitor as it picked up a civilian, and was about to roast them with Hellfire. That was all Jay needed to see before he snapped to his senses and tore out of the building and into Queens.

The world blurred around him as he made his way to Queens, where he was naturally the first on the scene, but he doubted the others would be far behind. The first order of business was evacuation. Kicking into overdrive, he ripped the civilian clear of the demon and dropped them far away, he returned to the street where the demon was rampaging and cleared the immediate vicinity of any bystanders. Once that was done, he switched to combat mode. 

Circling the demon, Jay let the Speed Force lightning flow off of him and onto the beast. 

The creature swatted at Jay and might have landed a hit had a line of green fire not restrained its tentacle. Turning for the briefest possible moment, Jay saw that Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern, who went by Sentinel these days, had arrived on the scene with Carter Hall, also known as Hawkman, and his son, Hector, the new Doctor Fate. 

Alan constructed flaming green stakes that speared through the demon’s tentacles and into the ground, while Carter’s warrior instincts kicked in, and flew towards it with his mace raised and expertly cutting through the air to avoid the blasts of Hellfire from its fanged mouth. 

Carter raised his Nth Metal mace above his head and brought it down onto the beast’s bulbous body. Screeching in pain, the demon lashed out and strained against Alan’s stakes, eventually ripping one free of the ground. Lashing out with incredible speed, the monster wrapped a tentacle around Carter and tossed him into Jay, sending them both flying back into a wall, dazed and disoriented. The demon then turned their way and opened its maw and another blast of Hellfire came hurtling toward the veteran heroes, about to send them to their maker. The orange glow was soon replaced with green radiance, as Alan had stepped between Jay, Carter, and the blast conjuring a bubble around the three of them. The shield Alan constructed with the power of the Starheart began to crack under the heat of the demonic flame. 

Alan didn’t frighten easily and didn’t fear for his own safety, but he knew that if he failed to hold back the Hellfire two of his oldest and dearest friends could die” He concentrated his will into teleporting the three of them out of harm’s way. What he failed to notice was Jay attempting to phase the three of them through the ground. The combination of Jay’s vibrations and the Starheart’s power ripped a hole in the fabric of space and consumed Jay, Carter, and Alan.

Seeing the loss of his father and compatriots, Doctor Fate, unleashed all his power on the demon in a seething fit of rage, tearing the boundaries of time and space apart, opening a gateway to the deepest pits of Hell, from which the demon would never escape again. 

Once the demon was banished, Hector removed his helmet as tears fell down his face and he cursed the unfairness of it all. Three of the world’s oldest and greatest heroes were gone just like that. With a mistake that shouldn’t have been made after sixty years of cooperation. 

**MUSUTAFU, JAPAN, ANOTHER REALITY**

Coming to his senses Jay felt the hard asphalt against his body. Jay also felt an electrical sensation in his body. It wasn’t new. His dimensional frequency was out of sorts. It happened a few times before on adventures with Barry Allen, Jay’s now deceased successor as the Flash. Like that time they went to the dimension that was straight out of those science-fiction novels Barry had loved so dearly. The next thing Jay did was out of habit after every time he got knocked out. He looked around for his helmet. Finding it a few inches above his head, he got on his knees and picked it up, setting it right back on his head. He then saw Alan and Carter on the ground. Carter was getting his bearings while Alan was on all fours, sweating and panting heavily. Looking up, Jay realized a crowd had formed around them. 

Standing up, Jay dusted off his clothes and activated his comlink, but was unsurprisingly met with static. They were in a different dimension after all.

Jay took a moment to listen to what was being said by the crowd. It was in a language he spoke fluently: Japanese. 

Carter finally stood up and asked Jay, “What’s going on?”

“Stuck in another dimension. My frequency is all out of sorts and Alan doesn’t look fit to be doing any teleporting. I think we’re in a version of Japan, though,” Jay explained.

As Jay finished speaking, another voice spoke up in Japanese, “Alright, coming through, make way!”

The man wore a gas mask and a cowboy hat with a large “S” on it and carried a handgun, which immediately made Jay think of his late friend Wesley Dodds, the Sandman. While Wesley’s uniform was a three-piece suit, it was clear this stranger was going for a cowboy aesthetic. Jay still found the few similarities enough to make him miss his friend.

The man finished pushing his way through the crowd and stopped before the Justice Society members, asking “You guys heroes?”

Jay stood silent for a moment, caught off guard by the similarity to his late friend, before coming to his senses and saying in Japanese, which he once learned in about six minutes sixty years ago, “That we are.”

“They call me Snipe. You?” Sandman-lookalike said, extending his hand to shake.

“I’m the Flash,” Jay said, taking Snipe’s hand.

“Hawkman,” Carter introduced himself.

“Who’s that? A villain? He looks pretty beat up,” Snipe said, looking behind Jay at Alan’s prone form.

“That’s our teammate, Sentinel. He exhausted a lot of energy in a fight,” Carter explained, also speaking fluent Japanese thanks to his many lifetimes of experience.

“Fight? What fight?” Snipe asked, looking around.

“It was pretty far away. Sentinel expended a lot of energy to get us to safety,” Carter said.

“I see,” Snipe said, looking at the lightning bolt emblazoned on Jay’s chest and asked, “You got some kinda electricity Quirk?” 

Jay began to answer when the sound of screeching tires and squealing sirens cut him off. Looking behind him, Jay saw a car round the corner followed by a handful of police cruisers. 

The cars were headed towards the crowd that had formed around the heroes in the street. 

Not wasting another moment, Jay transformed into a blur of motion as he zipped back and forth across the street, ferrying Carter, Alan, and the bystanders to safety. He was on his way back for Snipe when the native hero dove out the way of the oncoming car and fired his handgun, each bullet striking a tire. The car flipped over and Jay wasted no time jumping into the car in midair and getting the thugs to safety before the car landed onto its top.

After putting the thugs down, one of them pulled a gun on Jay and fired. Jay’s perception of time slowed to a crawl and the colors of the world were muted into a bluish-gray. The slide on the handgun slid back, the shell casing ejected from the top and a bullet slowly exited the barrel as an explosion propelled it forward. Jay observed all these things as the bullet slowly swam through the air toward his face. Reaching out his hand, Jay plucked the bullet out of the air and dismantled every screw holding the gun together, making it fall apart in the thug’s hand, and repeating the process with the other two. Jay was caught off guard when one of the thugs shot his hand out and oil spurted from his palm, spraying Jay in the face. Blinded, Jay could hear the thugs begin to scamper away, but they were quickly cut off by the wind blown by Carter’s wings. The sounds of violence soon followed. When the cracking and thudding ended, Jay knew Carter stood victorious. 

Jay vibrated at super speed, and the oil jumped off his face. With his vision now cleared, Jay saw the trio of criminals laying in a heap at Carter’s feet. 

The police, just now getting out of their squad cars, approached the dazed criminals and took them into custody. 

One of the officers approached Alan, who was now lying on his back and still sweating and panting. 

Jay zipped to Alan’s side.

“Is he a villain?” the officer asked.

“No. He’s my friend,” Jay answered.

“I see. We’re going to need your names for the report as well.” the officer said.

“Flash, Sentinel, and Hawkman,” Jay said pointing to each of them respectively. 

“Thanks. Is your friend injured?” 

“Nope. Just exhausted,” Jay said.

“I’ll be… fine… in a few…” Alan said, weakly raising his hand to wave away any concern that Jay or the officer may have had.

“I think we’d best be going,” Carter said, approaching Jay and Alan.

“Agreed,” Jay said.

Carter scooped up Alan into his arms and flew off, with Jay racing after him, the bystanders snapping pictures or watching in awe. 

Flying to the other end of the city and making sure they were away from prying eyes, Carter flew up to a hotel window. After making sure it was unoccupied, Carter tried to open it, but the window was unsurprisingly locked. In a soothing tone, Carter urged Alan, “C’mon, pal, use some of that willpower and phase us through the wall. You can rest in a nice bed after that.” 

Alan groaned, sweat pouring down his head like a waterfall, but complied. Carter and Alan were engulfed in the Green Flame’s energy and passed through the window. Carter set Alan gently down on a bed and opened the window from the inside. 

Jay ran up the wall and climbed through the window and into the room himself a second later.

“So when does your dimensional frequency fix itself?” Carter asked, crossing his arms and gazing out the window, making sure they weren’t followed.

“I’m not sure. Sometimes it takes hours, other times months,” Jay said, “Besides, I’m not sure Alan is up for dimensional travel at this moment.”

Carter grunted in response, taking off his wing harness and mask, and setting down his mace and shield before lying down on the bed opposite Alan, and closing his eyes for the night. 

Seeing that both beds were taken, Jay opted to sleep on the couch, wondering what the similarities and differences this world had to their own. 


	2. Burned Heroism

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made some major changes to the first chapter, so I'd recommend going back and rereading it.

Through the fog of the Dreaming, Jay could hear the voices of things that never have been or never will be. Swimming to the surface of his consciousness, Jay awoke on the couch in the hotel. A blue light filled most of the room but didn’t quite reach the farthest edges. Sitting up, Jay saw that at some point during the night, Carter must have switched on the TV. Jay looked at the clock in between the beds, telling him it was nine in the morning.

Jay closed his eyes once more, but they shot open when he heard the sound of a fire engine. 

Jay grabbed his helmet and zipped over to Carter’s bed, shaking him awake.

“Carter, get up!” Jay said.

Carter opened his eyes and quickly focused them on Jay. 

Without a word, Carter got out of bed and fastened his harness, slipped on his mask, and tucked his mace into his belt. 

“What about Alan?” Carter asked.

“He’s still sleeping the sleep of the just, let him be,” Jay said.

Carter and Jay jumped out the window. While Jay raced around the city looking for the emergency, Carter took to the sky and was able to find it just as fast as Jay. The burning tenement would be hard to miss from Carter’s angle, but something was wrong, more wrong than a burning building already was.

The fire was blue. 

Carter changed his trajectory and soared down to the burning building, where firefighters were battling the flames.

The gust of wind a moment later signified that Jay had arrived. 

As Jay and Carter were surveying the situation, a man shouted, “My daughter is in there!”

Jay dashed over the man and asked, “Where is she?”  
“Third floor, apartment three-seven-four,” the man said.

While Jay was speaking to the man, the entrance to the building began to cave in. Carter splayed his wings and rushed over to the door, holding it up.

“Flash! Go!” Carter shouted to Jay. 

Jay nodded and ran inside. 

The heat was unbearable. Almost as intense as Heat Wave’s, but Jay soldiered on: A little girl’s life was at stake. Jay tore up the stairs at a breakneck pace and made it to the third floor in record time. Running down the hall, Jay scanned each door for the plaque reading three-seven-four. When he found it, Jay kicked in the door. The room was filled with smoke and an eerie blue glow. 

Jay scanned the room and found a bundle of clothes lying low to the floor. 

Jay approached and kneeled only to find the little girl. 

She looked up at him, and Jay gave her a reassuring smile and nod while extending his hand. 

The little girl took his hand, and Jay asked, “What’s your name, kid?” 

“Mura,” she responded.

“Well, Mura, I need you to be brave,” Jay said, “Can you do that?”

Mura nodded and Jay smiled, putting his helmet on her head, asking, “Hold onto that for me, will you?” 

Mura nodded again, mirroring Jay’s smile as best she could.

“Good,” Jay said before hoisting the girl up on his back and saying, “Hold on tight.”

Once Mura’s grip was tight enough, Jay took off, running back down the stairs and made it back through the doorway Carter was holding up. 

Setting Mura down, Jay retrieved his helmet from her head and ruffled her hair before taking another lap around the building, making sure no one else was trapped inside. 

When Jay finished, he nodded to Carter, who ceased supporting the entrance to the building. 

“This fire wasn’t an accident,” Jay said, the chemist in Jay showing while Jay was swatting the soot off his clothes, “Blue flames. Someone either has the power to make a fire that hot, or some sort of chemical was mixed with the flames.” 

“Excuse me! Excuse me!” a voice called in the direction of Jay and Carter.

Turning to the source of the voice, Jay and Carter watched as a police officer approached them. 

“Can we help you, son?” Jay asked.

“You are American heroes?” the police officer asked.

“We are,” Carter replied. 

“You did not register with the Hero Public Safety Commission. Come with me, please,” 

“Register?” Jay muttered.

“Hero Public Safety Commission?” Carter mumbled.

“What about the people here?” Jay asked.

“More pro-heroes will be here shortly. You must register,” the police officer told them.

At the mention of “pro-heroes,” Jay looked at Carter and arched an eyebrow. Carter looked back and shrugged. 

The officer motioned for Carter and Jay to follow, and Jay asked “How did you know we’re from America and that we’re, uh, unregistered?”

“Yesterday’s report on the crime you helped stop mentioned that you spoke some English, were white, and dressed like most American heroes, looking like you threw your costumes together yourselves,” the officer explained. 

“We did put our outfits together ourselves,” Carter said. 

“Really?” the officer asked before mumbling, but not so quietly Carter’s enhanced senses couldn’t pick it up, “And they call America the Home of Heroes.”

Carter rolled his eyes.

As they followed the officer, Jay and Carter began to convene in English.

“I’m not liking the sound of this Hero Public Safety Commission. If I had to guess, it’s some sort of organization that keeps heroes on a leash. I’m not too keen on that. The officer saying our costumes looked homemade as opposed to something else makes me think that some sort of contractor makes costumes. It’s too early to make assumptions, but it seems like superheroes here are a bit different from home,” Carter said. 

“Agreed, but we’d best get concrete confirmation before making judgment,” Jay reasoned. 

Carter grunted in agreement, and the two of them followed the officer in silence until the officer leading them stopped and pointed them into a building. 

“Here is the Hero Public Safety Commission’s Musutafu office, please register and enjoy your time in Japan,” the officer told them before walking off.

Carter waited until the officer was out of sight before saying, “We can’t exactly go into a government building, claim we need to register from America, and then have no possible way to register.” 

“Nope,” Jay agreed.

“Let’s get back to the room, figure something out from there,” Carter suggested. 

Jay started running back the way they came as Carter spread his wings and lifted off.

As Jay was running down the street, he was able to look at various pedestrians, who seemed to be moving in slow motion. He was slightly surprised by the appearances of some people. Some were animalistic in appearance or had skin all colors of the spectrum. 

The interest of Jay’s scientific side was peaked, and he couldn’t help but wonder what had caused these mutations to become so commonplace.

Alan awoke to the gust of wind and electrical crackling Jay left in his wake.

“What were you up to?” Alan asked groggily. 

“Fire downtown,” Jay said casually.

“You save everyone?” Alan asked.

“Yep,” Jay said.

“Nothing interesting happen?” Alan inquired, only slightly looking over as Carter flew through the window.

“Actually, yeah. The fire was blue and someone mentioned something called the Hero Public Safety Commission,” Carter said.

“Hero Public Safety Commission?” Alan asked, sitting up.

“Also said something that made me think superhero costumes are commercially made,” Carter added.

“One moment,” Jay said, briefly disappearing from the room before returning, “Alright so in this world about eighty percent of the population possesses a superpower called a Quirk. Superhero is an actual profession regulated by the government and if you don’t go to a school to earn a hero license you cannot legally use your powers.”

Alan and Carter took a few moments to process the troubling idea of government regulated superheroics.

“You just go to the library?” Alan asked, trying not to think about the troubling information he had received. 

“Yep,” Jay confirmed.

“So since we aren’t native to this world, we never got licenses, so we can’t legally use our powers.” Carter said.

“Can’t exactly get our licenses now, we’re a little old for high school,” Jay joked.

“So what’re we gonna do? Not help people because it’s not permitted?” Alan asked sarcastically. 

The trio of veterans each knew they were thinking of the same thing. Back in the 1950s, the JSA was persecuted by the American Government under suspicion of being communists. They were given an ultimatum. Reveal their secret identities or never put the tights back on. The JSA was not too keen on giving up their greatest secrets, so they went into temporary retirement. It was only the second age of heroes that inspired them to put the costumes back on and show the new crowd how it should be done. Not that the new generation necessarily needed guidance, but it was nice being part of something again. The JSA briefly reformed until the tragic deaths of Rex Tyler, the first Hourman, Charles McNider, the first Doctor Mid-Nite, Al Pratt, the first Atom, and the disappearance of Carter, at the hands of a time traveling deviant named Extant during the Zero Hour Crisis. They only reformed for good a few months ago to stop the Dark Lord, Mordru, from stealing the power of the new Doctor Fate and bringing ruin to the universe, and Carter reincarnated once more. 

“But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that being a superhero is basically a popularity contest,” Jay said with disgust.  
“How do you mean?” Alan asked.

“Twice a year in most countries there are these things called the Hero Billboard Charts, basically ranking how much of a celebrity each hero is. Lots of heroes get into the business looking for a payday or some sort of recognition. Not because they have the means to actually help,” Jay said dourly.

“So we’re in a world full of what Booster Gold used to be?” Carter asked.

“Seems so,” Jay sighed.

As a brief silence hung in the air between the trio, Jay began to feel the familiar pain of hunger in his gut, and a harsh reality hit him.

“Alan? Carter? We don’t have any income. How will we eat?”

Alan thought for a few moments, hand gracing his chin before placing his hands on Carter and Jay’s shoulders. 

“What’re you doing?” Jay asked.

“Experimenting,” Alan replied. 

“Aren’t I supposed to be the scientist?” Jay quipped.

Alan’s hands began to burn green, which spread to Carter and Jay’s body, coating them in the Green Flame. 

The feeling of warmth that flooded through them was the same as whenever Alan would save them from a nasty fall, but instead of just licking at their skin, it filled the inside of their bodies too. Their fatigue and hunger dissolved and Jay and Carter were as good as new. 

“Let me guess, the Green Flame can keep you sustained so you thought it would sustain us too?” Carter asked.

“Yep,” Alan smirked.

“What now? Carter asked.

“I suppose we could try to find some minimum wage job to work, see if we can’t get some money despite our status as nonexistent,” Jay shrugged. 

“I don’t see how you could. You don’t have any other clothes, and I doubt any convenience store will hire a hero. I’ll go find some clothes.” Alan said as the energies of the Starheart dispersed his Sentinel outfit and normal work clothes took its place. 

Jay sat down on the bed, where he felt something pressing against him. Reaching into his back pocket, Jay fished out his wallet, which had a few dozen dollars in cash inside.

` “Alan, Carter, do you have your wallets?” Jay asked.

“Yeah, why?” Alan asked.

“No, why?” Carter asked. 

“Alan, give me your wallet,” Jay requested, taking Alan’s wallet before exiting and returning the room between eye blinks, now with long coats in his arms. 

“What’d you do?” Carter asked as Jay handed Alan back his wallet and a coat to Carter.

“Well, first I stopped at the nearest airport and exchanged our American dollars for Yen. Then I ran to a clothing store and bought some coats for us to hide our outfits under while leaving some money on the counter,” Jay explained. 

“Good thinking,” Carter grunted, pressing down on the medallion on his chest, which caused his wings to retract into his harness before slipping on the coat. 

Carter then walked over to the window and lifted it up. 

“We should probably set a time to be back by,” Alan said. 

Looking over at the digital clock between the two beds, Carter said, “It’s eleven-thirty now. We should meet back here at six o’clock. Sound good?”

“Sounds good,” Alan and Jay agreed. 

The veteran heroes parted ways outside the hotel, looking in different parts of the city for jobs. 

Walking throughout the city, Jay realized he had never truly visited Japan. He had been to Japan countless times during races throughout the world with Barry and his service in World War II, he even learned the language during the war, but never in his ninety-three years had he visited the country for the sake of it. 

As Jay was taking in the city, he felt the ground beneath him begin to rumble, and as he turned to look, he was knocked off the overpass along with several others by multiple gusts of wind created by something large. 

Looking down, Jay saw the asphalt below quickly approaching. 


	3. Drag Race of Death

Jay instinctively kicked into Speed Mode as he fell through the air and the bright, vibrant colors of the world became muted. His descent halted and he hung upside down in the air. Looking around, he counted seven others falling off this side of the bridge, and who knows how many more on the other end. Next, he spun himself around so that his feet were pointed to the ground. If he let himself fall to the ground naturally, he would end up with only enough time to save the people on his side, and none to save anyone on the other, he estimated. That wouldn’t cut it. His job was to save everyone, and he’d do just that, time be damned. He raised his arm into the air and began to spin it. Not so fast as he would if he were in combat, but fast enough so the vortex would push him to the ground. 

Jay’s body was toughened for travel at light speeds, so a short fall onto the ground caused him no great discomfort. As soon as his feet hit solid ground, he discarded his long coat, donned his helmet, and went under the bridge to check how many people were knocked off that side. He counted four, meaning he had eleven people to save. Child’s play. 

Backing up, he made a running leap to grab at two of the falling pedestrians and set them on the ground safely. Next, he ran up the side of the bridge and snagged the other two, once again set them down without a scratch. With that side cleared, he ran towards the more populated side of the bridge, where he was tasked with catching half a dozen people, who were still suspended in mid-air. Seeing they were too far out to reach from the wall, he slowed his mind down. The pedestrians fell through the air at an alarming rate before snapping back to a stop when they were reachable from the ground. He grabbed one by their collar and another around their waist, bringing them down and placing them safely on the ground. Jay repeated this process three more times until everyone was safely on the ground. 

He normally stopped to talk, but there was a more pressing matter at hand. Running up the side of the bridge, he found a few frazzled but unhurt people topside before dashing off in pursuit of whatever had endangered them in the first place. 

It wasn’t too difficult to catch up to what had thrown him off the bridge. All Jay had to do was follow the trail of destruction left in its wake. Once he caught up, he realized it wasn’t one large object, but many smaller ones, perhaps twenty or so. Men and women with what he reasoned must be speed Quirks. It looked like they were racing. He didn’t particularly care about the unlawful use of powers. Jay didn’t believe in that in the first place and was illegally using powers himself, but tearing up the street and endangering the lives of innocent citizens was where he drew the line. 

Jay removed the helmet from his head, took aim, and let it loose. The helmet soared through the air and made contact with one of the racer’s heads before ricocheting into another. As the marathoners tripped, Jay passed them by and used a trick Wally had shown him. He absorbed their kinetic energy, slowing their fall and adding their speed to his own, but not before scooping up his precious helmet. 

Two down, eighteen to go. 

A sprinter that was slightly behind one of his fallen brethren turned to see what had struck them but was met with only Jay’s fist shattering his visor. Jay once again absorbed the speed and accelerated more. 

Three down.

The remaining runners seemed to not have noticed the missing three and kept moving through the streets. 

Jay next decided on something Clark had taught him. He clapped his hands. At human speeds, it wouldn’t have even reached anyone’s ears, but at Mach twenty, it created a sonic boom. Said sonic boom tore through another seven of the racers, who’s speed Jay once again took for himself. 

Ten left.

The sonic boom and loss of seven racers did not go unnoticed of course, the remaining ten racers looking back at the source of the noise. They saw Jay approaching, and a trio of racers slowed their speed to meet him. 

They began to rain blows at superspeed, perhaps forty in a second between the three of them. It would have been hard for anyone else to keep up with, but Jay was the Flash. Each blow was expertly blocked at eye blurring speed, using techniques taught to him by Wildcat, Carter, Hippolyta, and the original Atom to name a few. After a few seconds, the trio stopped raining punches on him, and Jay felled them all with a single punch, once again absorbing the speed so they would not splatter. 

Seven to go. 

Jay finally pulled in front of the remaining sprinters and slid to a stop, eyeing down the lead racers before charging towards them himself.

He rammed through them all and sent them flying like bowling pins while stealing his last dose of speed.

Jay slid to a stop and looked back at the racers he had knocked down. 

Six were out for the count, but one was struggling to his feet. 

Jay marched over and grabbed the front of his jacket, bringing the man’s helmet close to his face. 

“Do you know how many people you almost killed?!” Jay roared. 

Behind the race car helmet, the man’s eyes widened, “What are you talking about?”

“Back at the bridge! If I hadn’t been there, eleven people would have fallen to their deaths!” Jay shouted.

“I can explain!” the man said. 

“Do it fast,” Jay growled.

“I’m a hero! My name is Rush Hour and I just saw these people running around! I heard about these drag racers before and I was going to trip them all up once I made my way to the front!” He explained, panicked. 

Jay’s eyes narrowed, and he spotted Rush Hour going for his pocket. Jay lashed out and grabbed his wrist. 

“Chill, man, I was going for my license!” Rush Hour protested. 

Jay released Rush Hour’s wrist and allowed him to pull his license out of his pocket, which he then offered to Jay. 

Jay looked at the license he had no way of knowing was legitimate or not, and decided to give Rush Hour the benefit of the doubt.

Releasing the man’s jacket, Jay put a step between them and then offered his hand. 

“Sorry about that. Folks call me the Flash,” Jay said with a friendly smile that for once, didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“You’re American? You got the accent,” Rush Hour observed. 

“Yep,” Jay confirmed before suggesting, “Why don’t you help me round these fellas up?

* * *

After parting ways with Jay and Carter, Alan staggered his way through the city, still feeling the effects of his power exhaustion, for once feeling almost as old as he actually was. 

Walking past an electronics store, Alan saw a handful of televisions in the window playing an ad, displaying a smiling hero in a striped, blue suit along with a ridiculous hairdo.

“The Anniversary of All Might, #1 Hero, and Symbol of Peace is approaching! Find official All Might merchandise near you!” 

Stopping to look closer, Alan squinted and could see the words “Paid for by the All Might Team” at the bottom of the screen. He grimaced. That was the entire problem with this world. The commercialization of superheroics. Superheroes get paid by the government for their work and then use their pay to have employees put together ads like this one to boost their popularity to sell merchandise, thus getting paid more. 

_ This isn’t how it’s meant to be. Hero work and paying jobs are kept separate. That’s how it is, how it’s always been.  _

He wondered how many heroes even had secret identities here. Alan knew superhero appreciation was common, it should be. Brave men and women risked and lost their lives protecting the world from danger, but they’re meant to do it out of the goodness of their hearts, not out of self-interest. The very idea of young men and women entering into a profession Alan helped to cultivate to help only themselves made him sick. 

Alan sneered and continued to stagger down the street.

Alan only made it a few more feet before he felt his brow getting damp and his knees gave out. 

On his way to the ground, a hand wrapped around his underarm to keep him upright. 

Looking up, Alan saw a boy, perhaps middle school age, with red hair and a small scar above his eye. 

“Woah, you okay mister?” the boy asked. 

“I’ll be okay, help me over there, son,” Alan requested, pointing towards a bench a few yards away. 

The boy nodded and wrapped Alan’s arm around the back of his neck, doing the bulk of the walking to the coveted bench where Alan could rest his exhausted body. When they reached the bench, the boy gently sat Alan down and then sat next to him. 

Alan wiped his brow and then turned to the boy. 

“Thanks, son,” he said, giving a small smile.

“You’re welcome, sir,” the boy said.

“You don’t have to call me sir or anything. Name’s Alan. Alan Scott,” he said, extending his hand. 

The boy shook his hand and introduced himself as well, “I’m Kirishima.”

“Well, Kirishima, you saved me from quite the fall there.”

“It wasn’t anything special,” Kirishima said.

“Maybe not to you. When a hero saves someone, it’s another day in the life, but when someone gets saved, that’s something really special to them. Something that will stay with them forever. A hero’s job is just as much to inspire as it is to save, and there’s no better way to inspire than to save,” Alan rationalized. 

“Have you ever been inspired, Alan?” Kirishima asked.

“All the time. By my friends, by my family, and by you,” Alan said. 

“Alan, I told you it wasn’t anything special,” Kirishima shrugged.

“Never say any act of kindness isn’t special. It’s something that’s not common enough,” Alan said with a sad smile. 

As Alan finished speaking, Kirishima’s phone buzzed in his pocket. 

Pulling it out and looking at the message, Kirishima’s eyes widened and he shot up.

Bowing down, Kirishima said, “I’m so sorry, sir! I have somewhere to be!”

“Don’t sweat it, son, I’ll sit here until I’m ready to go. If I need help I’m sure someone else with a heart just as kind as yours will turn up,” Alan laughed.

“Goodbye, sir, I’m sure we’ll see each other again someday!” Kirishima waved as he ran away.

“I told you to call me Alan!” he shouted after the boy.

Chuckling, Alan leaned against the back of the bench and rested for a few minutes before standing back up.

* * *

A gust of wind blew, and Carter’s hand shot out. Wrapping his fist around a newspaper before it hit his face. He smoothed out the paper and briefly skimmed the contents before crumpling it into a ball and throwing it into a trash can. Nothing interesting. As he passed by an alley, Carter’s superhuman hearing caught a faint sound. The familiar sound of knuckles against flesh, followed by a whimper and laughter. He paused and turned towards the alley before setting down the path. The sounds of violence got more intense as Carter journeyed through the innards of the city. Coming to a fork, Carter focused his hearing and determined that the fight was down the left path. Continuing, Carter’s path came to an end when the pathway turned into an open area large enough to park a handful of cars. 

Zeroing in on the fight, Carter was unsurprised to learn it was less of a fight and more of a beatdown. Two boys held another one down while a third whaled on him. 

“C’mon, man, use your Quirk to fight back, save yourself! Oh, that’s right! You don’t have one!” the boy, who Carter assumed was the ringleader, taunted as his cronies laughed. 

As the boy brought his arm back for another punch, Carter grabbed his wrist and tossed him across the clearing careful not to do too much damage to the lad. 

The two cronies looked up at Carter before dropping the boy and jumping at Carter. One boy’s fist drew earth from the ground in an eyeblink and the other had his fingernails extend into claws. 

The older man put no effort into evading the attacks and spent some time maneuvering to a position he wanted. Picking up the lid off a trashcan, Carter used it as a shield and let the one boy’s claws glance off of it before stepping to the side and heaving him into the trashcan headfirst, encasing the boy in darkness as he returned the lid to its rightful place and giving the trashcan a kick for good measure. 

The ringleader recovered from the throw and charged Carter as his fingers extend a lot like Plastic Man’s would. Ducking and rolling, Carter evaded the extended fingers and ended up at the head honcho’s feet. 

Shooting his leg out, Carter rotated and knocked his feet out from under him. 

Standing and putting a foot on the boy’s chest, the last one, realizing how hopelessly outclassed he was, ran to the trashcan to rescue his friend, who still seemed quite dizzy from Carter’s kick before running off. 

“Come back here, you cowards!” the boy under Carter’s foot shouted as he attempted to pitch Carter from his perch. A minute or two of unsuccessful struggling later, Carter leaned down and said, “I don’t want you or your gang picking on that boy any longer. If I hear about anything, I’ll come back for you, you understand?” 

The boy nodded, anger on his face, but smart enough to know he could not do anything. Lifting his foot, Carter watched as the boy scrambled away. 

Turning his attention across the clearing to the assault victim, who laid in a ball, Carter approached and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“They’re, uh, they’re gone now, kid,” Carter said, awkwardly trying to be comforting, which had always been more Jay or Alan’s area of expertise. 

“Go away,” the muffled voice of the boy said into his pants. 

“I just need to make sure you’re alright,” Carter said. 

“I’m fine. Leave.”

A part of Carter wanted to leave, knowing that he was not very good in this type of situation, but for some reason, he refused to move.

Sitting down next to the boy, Carter tried to make small talk, “You don’t have a Quirk, huh?” 

The boy didn’t respond. Probably was a sore subject that Carter shouldn’t have touched. 

“What’s your name?” Carter tried, deciding to restart with the basics.

“...Matsuda,” the now identified boy responded. 

“I’m Carter,” he said.

“I’ve never heard a name like that before,” Matsuda said. 

“I’m American,” Carter explained.

“Oh.” 

“How old are you?” 

“Twelve.”

“Are you okay?”

“Fine.”

“I made sure those boys won’t be messing with you again.”

“Thanks.”

Carter would never get the boy to open up at this rate.

“If you could have any Quirk at all, what would it be?” Carter asked, hoping to engage Matsuda. 

Matsuda sighed and sat up, revealing a beaten and bloody face looking Carter straight in the eye before dragging his finger in a circle on the ground.

“Flight,” Matsuda responded after a few seconds. 

Carter smiled and said, “Yeah, flying is pretty great.”

Carter was waiting a few seconds to see if Matsuda would say anything more when an idea struck him.

“What if I told you I could take you flying right now?” Carter asked.

Matsuda’s eyes shot to Carter, a brief flicker of hope igniting before he looked down and said, “Don’t patronize me.”

“No patronizing here, Matsuda,” Carter said standing up and retrieving his mask from inside the coat and then taking off the coat, handing it to Matsuda and saying, “Hold this for me?”

When Matsuda took the coat, Carter rolled his shoulders and pressed the medallion on his chest, wings springing out of the harness and extending fully.

Matsuda’s eyes went wide and he looked at Carter in awe before finally asking, “You-you’re a hero?” 

Carter fit his mask over his head and extended a hand to Matsuda. 

Matsuda carefully reached out and grasped Carter’s hand. 

Carter picked the boy up and carefully began to rise, before shooting into the sky. 

Carter looked to Matsuda, whose eyes were filled with wonder, Carter imagined he looked something like that on his first flight. 

“What’s your hero name?” Matsuda asked, looking back at Carter.

“They call me Hawkman!” Carter shouted over the wind.

Carter and Matsuda flew for near an hour, until Carter asked, “Where’s your home, son?” 

Matsuda scanned the cityscape until his eyes caught sight of the street he lived on, and pointed down.   
“So how do you wanna do this? Dive or float down?”  
“Dive!” Matsuda shouted enthusiastically. 

Carter smiled and took a steep decline down towards the street and at the moment it looked as if he would crash Carter pulled up and landed on his feet.

Setting Matsuda onto the ground, he handed Carter his coat back and ran towards his home, motioning Carter to follow.

Matsuda bound up the steps and rapidly rang the doorbell until his mother answered. 

Upon seeing the state of her son’s face, his mother gasped and gently rubbed her fingers over the wounds, to which Matsuda replied by waving her away.

“Did those boys hurt you again?” his mother asked.

“Yeah,” Matsuda started, sounding down, before perking up and pointing at Carter, “And then Hawkman sent them running off and he flew me around!”

Finally taking her eyes off the boy, Matsuda’s mother registered Carter’s presence and a look of surprise crossing her face, no doubt shocked that a hero was standing at her door. 

“You saved him?” His mother asked.

Carter nodded, “Those boys won’t be bothering him anytime soon.”

“Thank you, sir,” Matsuda’s mother said, bowing down to Carter.

Carter bowed as well, saying “It was my pleasure, ma’am.” 

“Hey, Hawkman! Wanna stay for dinner?” Matsuda asked. 

Carter knew that he was meant to rendezvous with Jay and Alan at six, and it must have been quarter of, but he also knew that the boy was in desperate need of as many pick-me-ups as possible.

As his mother shushed him and started to apologize for Matsuda’s abrasiveness, Carter said, “If your mother is okay with it, I don’t see why not!”

Matsuda started begging his mother to let Carter stay for dinner, and she finally relented, apologizing to Carter and saying she was sure he had better things to do.

Carter waved her off and told her it was fine. A hearty meal later, Carter bid farewell to his young friend and flew back to the hotel, where he reunited with Alan and Jay, who were both relieved that he was safe and frustrated that he blew off the rendezvous.


End file.
